Correcting the headline: ‘Coelacanth’ yes; ‘Ancient’ no

I know of some Christians who, wary (and rightly so) of the strong evolutionary
anti-God bias of the secular media, avoid or take little interest in daily news
reports.

While I certainly endorse the earnest Christian’s desire to focus on thinking
about ‘whatever is true, … whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever
is lovely …’ (Philippians 4:8), it’s important to note that not
everything that is reported in the secular news media is false. Some of
what is reported is not only true, but strategically very useful in the
hands of Bible-believing Christians. The trick is to be able to separate out the
facts from the evolutionary millions-of-years Bible-denying ‘spin’ that
so many reporters and journalists weave into their articles these days. Admittedly
this requires more effort and alertness on the part of the believer compared to
simple avoidance. However, the ability to exercise ‘the Berean standard’
(Acts 17:11) in our daily lives is a very useful discipline
to have (Hebrews 5:14), enabling Christians to sort through the dross
and pick up gems valuable for demolishing evolutionary ideas (2 Corinthians 10:5) and proclaiming the truth of God’s
Word.

A classic example was the recent headline ‘Ancient coelacanth caught in Indonesia’.1 How ancient? The article explained
the coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) was ‘a species once thought
as extinct as dinosaurs,’ i.e. that it ‘was believed to be extinct for
65 million years until one was found in 1938 off Africa’s coast.’ The
1938 discovery ‘ignited worldwide interest’, and this latest Indonesian
catch of a ‘living fossil’ (as the article described it) was also notable
because the fisherman managed to keep it alive in a pool for a further 17 hours—’an
extraordinary survival time’ for such a deep-water fish, according to a local
marine biologist. Other coelacanth specimens have been caught in recent years, including
one in the same waters off North Sulawesi in 1998, but the 17 hours that this latest
coelacanth remained alive after being caught surpasses that of specimens captured
previously.

Separating fact from fiction

Let’s now separate out the eyewitness-observed facts in the article
from the evolutionary storyline woven through the article.

Eyewitness account: A fisherman caught a fish in Indonesia. The
fish, a coelacanth, had formerly been known only from fossil specimens, and long
presumed extinct. But in 1938, a coelacanth was found off Africa’s coast,
showing the species was not extinct, and other specimens have been caught since
then. This latest coelacanth specimen from Indonesian waters remained alive for
17 hours after being brought to the surface—a record to date.

Evolutionary storytelling: The coelacanth is an ‘ancient’
species, which disappeared from the fossil record 65 million years ago, along with
the dinosaurs. Presumed to have been extinct for that time, the discovery that they’re
still alive earns them the tag of ‘living fossil’.

Now that we’ve removed the evolutionary storytelling, how are the eyewitness-sourced
facts of the article ‘strategically very useful’ for Bible-believing
Christians?

Using fact to destroy fiction

When reaching out to non-Christians who assume that evolution explains our origins,
we can use news items like this to show how evolutionary ideas about millions of
years just don’t ‘stack up’ with the evidence, in stark contrast
to the biblical account of history.

Evolutionists assume that the fossil-bearing rock layers have been laid down over
millions of years, hence when creatures like the coelacanth are absent
from upper rock strata (which evolutionists say straddle ‘the last 65 million
years’) they presume that means that the coelacanth must be extinct. Hence,
a news item like this one complete with a photo of the fisherman in the pool with
his live, freshly caught coelacanth, flies in the face of evolutionary
interpretations of the ‘fossil record’.

you could point to the photo of the fisherman holding his still-wriggling catch
and say something like: ‘For a fish that evolutionists had supposed was extinct
for 65 million years, you can’t get much fresher than that!’

So, when witnessing to non-Christians, you could point to the photo of the fisherman
holding his still-wriggling catch and say something like: ‘For a fish that
evolutionists had supposed was extinct for 65 million years, you can’t get
much fresher than that!’

You could then point out that the Bible describes an event that helps us to understand
why we find so many beautifully preserved fossils, such as the coelacanth,
right around the world—i.e. there was a global Flood. A great many fossils
show evidence of having been buried quickly under water-borne sediment,
thwarting scavengers and decay—hence the often exquisite degree of preservation.
So the ‘fossil record’ is a sobering legacy of the global Flood of just
4,500 years ago (and its aftermath), and reflects the order of burial in
that event, not the order of evolution (’appearance’)
and extinction (’disappearance’) over millions or billions of years.

Thus, when creatures such as the coelacanth turn up alive and well, it’s no
surprise to Christians who know that the Bible can be trusted from the very first
verse. But for evolutionists, the discovery of a ‘living fossil’ is
often not only a surprise—why no evolution in 65 million years?—but
also can completely overturn previous evolutionary notions about
it. For example, evolutionists once said that amphibians evolved from a Rhipidistian
fish, something like the coelacanth. It was explained that they used their fleshy,
lobed fins for walking on the sea-floor before emerging on the land. As long as
the coelacanth was ‘extinct’, such speculation seemed impossible to
disprove. But with the discovery of a living coelacanth in 1938 and their subsequent
observation, it was found that the fins were not used for walking but for deft maneuvering
when swimming. Also, its soft parts were found to be totally fish-like, not transitional.
It’s now known also that the coelacanth has some unique features. It gives
birth to live young after about a year’s gestation, it has a small second
tail to help its swimming, and a gland that detects electrical signals. (Surely evidence of having been designed.) Thus the
finding of live coelacanths proved fatal to the idea that such were a ‘transitional
form’ from which amphibians (and subsequently land animals and birds) are
descended.2

Of course, it is wise to be prepared for ‘questions arising’, e.g. the
obvious one relating to the latest article is ‘But what about the dinosaurs?
If the dinosaurs haven’t been extinct for 65 million years, where are they
today?’

So, how should we be ready (1 Peter 3:15) to answer? In cases like this, sometimes it
can be more strategic to answer the question by asking a question—one
that highlights the flawed assumptions behind the original question, e.g., ‘Coelacanths
and whales live together—but why don’t we find their fossils
together?’3

By thus prompting your questioner to think for himself (or herself), and reminding
them again of your earlier words about the biblical Flood, who knows where the conversation
might proceed from there? If further questions arise, there’s plenty of free
online material available from
here to help you with providing answers. And don’t be disheartened
if your questioner doesn’t exhibit any apparent change-of-heart—after
all, anyone ‘labouring in the Lord’ does not labour in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58). And how’s this for incentive
to persevere with ‘imparting wisdom’ in the face of indifference or
hostility:

Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who
lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. Daniel 12:3

Dr Carl Wieland elaborated on this point in his recent debate
with an evolutionist-available on
DVD. For our online review/summary of the debate, see Clash over origins. Return to Text.

Published: 13 July 2007 (GMT+10)

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